Videos - Page 237

When I arrived at the Scottrade Center on Saturday, Gus Johnson and the Strikeforce crew were in the middle of going through a dry-run, testing the camera setups, production cues, and pyrotechnics, while a few of the fighters worked out their own bugs in the cage. So if you were ever curious to see what happens a couple hours before a big televised MMA show, check out the video above, in which random PAs stand in for Phil Baroni and Nick Diaz; apologies for the shakiness in the beginning. The centerpiece of this clip starts at the 0:30 mark: Brett Rogers was running through some sprawls when Kevin Randleman entered the cage and, as if on cue, an epic groove started blasting from the speakers. The Monster’s vibe was infectious, and by the 1:10 mark, the Strikeforce cage was the hottest dance club in St. Louis.

Following the Strikeforce post-show press conference on Saturday night (which I’ll post highlights from later today, as well as some other goodies), I ran around the room interrogating as many fighters as I could before we were all kicked out of the Scottrade Center. The results are above: The Grim talks wall-punching, Gilbert Melendez talks redemption, Jake Shields rants about his hatred of Joe Riggs, and Nick Diaz says he wants an important opponent — like Georges St. Pierre. More to come…

What up, guys? I just got back from shooting some footage at the Strikeforce press conference, which I’ll be sharing with you on Monday. The basic gist of the Q+A session was: Joe Riggs and Scott Smith had to go to the hospital after their fights, Andrei Arlovski just didn’t feel like sticking around, Jake Shields has made up his mind that he’s not going to give Joe Riggs the time of day, Nick Diaz doesn’t consider Cung Le to be an important opponent, and Brett Rogers is just gonna keep doin’ work. (Direct quote.) Plus, Brett Rogers told me the secret to his KO power, I chatted with Gilbert Melendez about his preparation for his rematch with Josh Thomson, and Nick Diaz provided me with an exclusive rant. In the meantime, video of the Rogers/Arlovski knockout is above, and video of the Diaz/Smith scrap is after the jump. Talk soon…

Props to MMA Fanhouse for turning us on to the new-ish feature on Wanderlei Silva’s YouTube channel called "Old School Video Series," in which the Axe Murderer tells the stories behind his early fights in Brazil before showing us the classic carnage. It’s kind of like a vale tudo version of VH1 Storytellers. Above is the first installment, in which a 20-year-old Wanderlei Silva enters his first eight-man tournament to earn money for his new daughter, and leaves with a broken hand, a broken nose, no prize money whatsoever — and his first knockout victory. After the jump: Wandy’s second fight against Marcelao Barbosa ends abruptly due to shoulder-injury, but at least he actually gets paid for it. By the way, if anybody can explain the weird sound effect that comes at the 2:18-2:19 mark of that vid, please, by all means. (Is it possible that he has his large intestine miked up?)

Remember when identifying yourself as a karate black belt used to mean something, back before MMA came along and changed all that and way back before Lyoto Machida came along and changed it again? Well, years from now we will look back on this moment from NBC’s "I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!" and think to ourselves, ‘Now that was the exact moment when the public lost respect for the jiu-jitsu black belt.’

In this CageWriter video from an Ultimate Fighter media day held yesterday in Las Vegas, UFC prez Dana White gives a few more details about the signing of Kimbo Slice and his future with the organization. Notably, Dana repeats his assertion that Kimbo’s TUF contract will be the same as everybody else’s, but adds that it will be "a lot fucking different" if he actually wins the show. He refutes the theory that Kimbo will be protected in any way in the matchups or saved for the later episodes, and says that theoretically he could be picked first to fight. Also, Icey Mike is one of the smartest guys he’s met in this business, apparently.

After the jump:Quinton Jackson says he doesn’t trust his temper around Rashad Evans and hopes he can get through TUF 10 without going to jail. Plus, day 2 of Dana White’s WEC 41 blog, in which DW tries to get predictions on the Faber/Brown match from some of his fighters — like many casual MMA fans, Wanderlei Silva and Rampage aren’t even aware that it’s happening — then Dana tries one of those soul handshakes with Rashad and calls him "homey."

When it was announced that Triggonomics brand-manager Frank Trigg was returning to the UFC after a four-year absence, we had a lot of questions — like who his first opponent would be, and when exactly he’d be fighting, and had he picked out his next weigh-in outfit yet. Well, we still don’t have specifics, but in this enlightening video blog recorded Sunday, Twinkle Toes tells us the following:

— He’d rather crash and burn against top-ranked opponents then face lesser-known guys, and he decided to return to the UFC because every top welterweight other than Jake Shields fights there.

Well that sure didn’t take long. Less than twenty-four hours after we posted Joe Riggs’ comments about Phil Baroni’s past and possibly present steroid use, Baroni has fired back hard in an interview with Cage Writer’s Steve Cofield. The steroid accusations make Baroni so mad that he comes back after his shower to talk more shit on Riggs, making an issue out of “Diesel’s” own history with drug use after saying that Riggs "crossed the line." Combine that with the uncomfortable sexual remarks peppered throughout this video, and Baroni admitting that even he doesn’t know where his rants are going sometimes, and you have yourself just another fun day inside Xtreme Couture.

After the jump, Kimbo Slice makes his first appearance on a Dana White vlog, and we suddenly look like some real prescient motherfuckers up in this piece.

Despite his decision victory over Dan Miller at UFC 98, Chael Sonnen must be a little worried about getting dropped from the UFC again because he decided to dedicate a little video time to kissing as much of Dana White’s ass as he can possibly get his lips on inside of four and a half minutes. Seriously, does Sonnen think a video asserting his almost cult-like loyalty to the UFC is going to save his ass if he loses a couple fights? Because it won’t, dude. Dana will still drop you like a bad Pinkberry if it seems convenient.

It’s one thing to thank your employer for the paycheck, but Sonnen stops just short of declaring himself an indentured servant to the UFC. The fact that they’ve already fired him once and will almost certainly do it again at some point in the future? Doesn’t even matter to Sonnen, because that cell phone in his pocket and soda in his fridge wouldn’t even be there if not for the genius of Dana White. If only the UFC prez would hurry up and write that book on business that Chael can’t wait to read. Maybe somebody should tell him that Warren Buffett kind of already has written a book on business. On second thought, nah, let’s leave him with his illusions.